1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to an air bag explosive container device and method, and, in particular, the invention relates to an air bag explosive container device wherein the device comprises a metal base structure having a protective coating thereon and to a method of manufacture therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need for increased safety for people riding in various vehicles has become more and more important especially since the speed limits on many highways has increased in recent years. In recent times, the development of the air bag for protecting the people riding in various vehicles has become one of the leading safety innovations for protecting these people.
Accordingly, various component parts used in air bag systems have become exceedingly important and critical in providing very reliable and safe operating air bag systems. Thus, each of the component parts of an air bag system need to be extremely reliable and safe in the event of emergency use during the period of time that the vehicle is in operation. Also, each of these component parts needs to be able to perform their critical functions over an extended period of time because it may be many months or possibly even years before these component parts may be used in an emergency situation.
Therefore, the reliability of each of these component parts of an air bag safety or protection system over a lengthy or extended period of time is exceedingly important. Additionally, besides the important consideration of reliability, there are significant cost considerations that must also be calculated, evaluated and integrated into the total consideration of the use and implementation of these air bag safety or protection systems. Obviously, if the component parts of an air bag system is exceedingly expensive or costly, then the total cost of the air bag system that uses all of the expensive or costly component parts becomes too high for practical application or implementation in various vehicles.
In many situations, there are multiple levels of costs that have to be considered. For example, a manufacturer or vendor of a component part that is used in an air bag system needs to carefully calculate the total costs in manufacturing their component part in the volume quantities that are needed and then add an amount for profitability on the component part. Then, the purchaser of these component parts from the manufacturer thereof who has paid the total price which includes the manufacturing cost and profitability amount has to then add a percentage or multiplication factor when combining or assembling all of these component parts into an air bag safety system so that when they sell their air bag system to the vehicle manufacturer, such as G.M., Ford or Chrysler, they will be able to be paid for their costs in the assembly or manufacture of the total air bag system plus an amount for profitability on the entire system. Similarly, the vehicle manufacturer purchasing the air bag system usually will factor in their cost of the purchase of the air bag system plus some amount for profitability which is passed on to the purchaser of the vehicle as part of the purchase price of the vehicle. Therefore, manufacturers of vehicles and the vendors or manufacturers of the air bag systems are always concerned about costs of component parts which directly impacts upon the costs of air bag systems which correspondingly directly affects the total cost of the vehicles containing these air bag systems. A savings of even a few cents on a component part without sacrificing quality or reliability is the goal and objective of every manufacturer.
Thus, each of the component parts of air bag systems are consistently being carefully analyzed and scrutinized for both reliability and cost. While in many situations there is a trade-off between cost and reliability, air bag systems for vehicles cannot enjoy such a trade-off since the high degree of reliability of the component parts for these air bag systems must be maintained.
It is extremely desirable to create component parts for use in air bag systems that achieve the goal of providing a high degree of reliability, but yet are also less expensive than other similar functioning component parts. Therefore, any reduction in the cost of these component parts while maintaining the same reliability factor is exceedingly important in the manufacture or sale and use of air bag systems. For example, a savings of only a few cents for a component part is usually considered to be a major accomplishment because of the overall savings that are achieved due to the inherent multi-level factoring described above when the component part's costs are increased from (a) the level of the component manufacturer to (b) the level of the air bag system manufacturer to (c) the vehicle manufacturer and finally to (d) the vehicle purchaser. Again, any component part savings must still result in providing a component part that is just as reliable as the prior component part that does not have the same cost savings features as the newer less expensive component part.
The prior art air bag explosive container device included a lower cylinder portion having apertures and an internally threaded portion at an open end thereof, and an upper cap portion which had a cylindrical shaped external threaded portion for connection to the lower cylinder portion's threaded portion and which together enclosed a chamber for containing an explosive material such as AZIDE (that is currently used in such a device) wherein both the lower cylinder portion and the upper cap portion are each made of stainless steel.
One problem with this prior art air bag explosive container device is that the stainless steel material of the lower cylinder portion needs to have several apertures machined or formed to thereby provide a gas release means when the AZIDE explosive material contained therein is caused to explode. Also, both the upper cap portion and the lower cylinder portion needed to have its respective threaded portion machined or formed for connection of the upper cap portion to the lower cylinder portion and also needs to have a single aperture formed in the upper cap portion to permit electrical wires to pass therethrough into the lower cylinder portion to serve as ignition wires for the explosive material contained therein. All of this machining work on stainless steel parts, which are inherently more expensive to produce because of the costs associated with both fabricating high purity stainless steel parts and the difficulty in machining such stainless steel parts, are relatively difficult fabrication operations and costly to machine. Another problem is that the AZIDE explosive material that is used inside the device has toxic chemical elements which causes corrosion and the like.